Paul Hastings has hired Linklaters’ global infrastructure co-heads, Jessamy Gallagher and Stuart Rowson, in London.

The duo are the latest in a series of hires in the city for the Los Angeles-based firm under new global chair Frank Lopez that has also seen it add a heavyweight leveraged finance team from Latham & Watkins and leading finance partner Patrick Bright from Weil Gotshal & Manges in recent months.

Gallagher and Rowson advise funds and financial sponsors investing in regulated and unregulated asset classes across the infrastructure market, including energy transition and digital infrastructure assets.

Top-ranked by Chambers UK, their arrival represents a significant boost to Paul Hastings’ infrastructure and energy capabilities globally following the arrival of a Band 1 team led by partners Robert Freedman and Gregory Tan in New York last year from Shearman & Sterling. 

Gallaghers’ practice focuses on M&A transactions in the infrastructure and energy sector and she regularly advises global pension, infrastructure and fund managers as well as FTSE-listed clients on their transactions in that market. She was ranked as the fourth most active M&A lawyer in EMEA by MergerLinks in 2019 and at Linklaters served as head of clients and sectors and as a member of its global executive committee. She also co-founded the firm’s funds and fnancial investors group. 

Recent work includes advising the National Grid on its divestment of its £14bn UK gas distribution business, Cadent to a Macquarie-led consortium - the largest-ever energy and infrastructure deal in the UK. She also advised Arqiva on the sale of its telecoms division to Cellnex Telecom for £2bn.

Meantime, Rowson has more than 25 years of experience and has worked on a range of financings to facilitate the acquisition of energy and infrastructure assets together with multi-sourced debt platforms and portfolio financings. He co-founded Linklaters’ funds and fnancial investors group and has advised on matters including the refinancing of the John Laing portfolio acquired by Dalmore and Equitix and the financing for the acquisition of CapeOmega. 

Gallagher and Rowson are the latest senior partners to exit Linklaters in London in the past few months, with leading public M&A lawyer Nick Rumsby leaving for Cleary Gottlieb and corporate partners Stuart Bedford and Lorna Tennent moving over to KPMG and insurer Rothesay respectively. 

This is the second high-profile partner raid by a US firm in London this week following a triple hire by Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, including that of Travers Smith’s Ian Shawyer, the former head of its private equity and financial sponsors group.